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Well today my 87 died on me... took me 5 minutes of fiddling to figure out the 15 amp fuse under the dash for the ignition circuit was blown and therefore keeping me from getting spark. A new fuse later and it fired right up.

The car runs good now, but the tach jumps a bit (say from 3000 to 3250 or 3500) and also from 4000 to 4500... usually when I am accelerating hard under load. The car does NOT feel like its surging at all, its all just in the behavior of the needle.

It had done this a couple of times before the fuse blew too.

Now... when the fuse was blown I noticed that the choke wire had popped off and was sitting on the engine (grounding out probably...) (I soldered it on, when I got home so it hopefully will stay put) So... does the electric choke work off the ignition circuit? Did the fuse blow because of the choke wire? Or because the coil is screwing up (see specs below) or because of the disty?

WHEEEEHEHEHehehhehe more electrical problems Maybe I should have went to college for electrical engineering instead of multimedia....

Here's what I can tell you about yoru problem. Ignition coil is where I would start. Swap ANY one in and see if it makes a difference (in the case of swaping junkyard parts, use atleast 2 !_! ) I've seen coils cause the tach to jump all over on 2 vehicles.

Alternator could be another posibility. Voltage spikes can blow fuses and cause guages/lights to bounce/flash. Seem them do some funny things on several vehicles.

Your guess on the dist is another posibility; but I would think only on the EFI models. Your's is all mechanical and vacume operated; correct? On the EFI Optical dizzys you could have some funny electrical problems as they plug directly into the ignition system. I guess thats why I say start with the coil, then alt.

Disty bushings. There is no fundamental difference with the EA81 and EA82 carbed disty's - other than the mounting and the drive gear. Get it fixed before the reluctor smashes into the pickup and destroy's it...... pop the cap and check for play. Although you may not notice much.

Your choke wire coming loose definately can blow a fuse - had that happen to me on the way back from WCSS5 - on the EA81's it's the same fuse as the tail lights......